A Better Way To Do Victory Point Costs
One of The Great Zimbabwe's most distinctive mechanics is its VR (Victory Requirement) system. Your VR starts at 20, and when your VP count reaches your VR, the game ends. Several
Progression
Players like things to change throughout the game. They especially like to become stronger, so that by the end of the game, they feel a concrete improvement.
Obsolescence Strengthens Progression
One goal of game design is to make players feel they have made progress by the end of the game. A game where the end feels the same as the beginning has an
Sticky Choices Increase Replayability
Some choices are reversible, such as moving armies around a board in Risk or discarding a power card in Spirit Island. Others are permanent, such as constructing a building in Catan or earning
How to Incentivize Difficulty Settings
One challenge in designing a single-player game is that players have varying skill levels. Challenging gameplay is good, but the traditional method of choosing a difficulty level is not very rewarding for
The Most Satisfying Reward Might Be To Remove a Problem
It is tempting to see progression in games as a process of gaining more and more resources and options. But options create noise. When players have many options, it takes more effort to